Cabin crew

Sleeping on the job

A cabin crew member advised that routine assignment of maximum duty days coupled with minimum rest periods results in unacceptable deterioration in performance of safety related duties. She did not feel safe with layover minimum guidelines of eight hours coupled with 10-14 hours on duty. Further, she reported previously falling asleep on her jump seat during taxi in and out of gates.

“I forget the easiest tasks, including arming my doors for takeoff and giving safety briefings to passengers on an exit row.” She reported being too fatigued to look for suspicious behaviour as required for security.

Rest time regulations breached

A diversion due to a medical emergency resulted in the cabin crew being short on rest. A number of passenger situations arose causing the flight to be delayed. There was an additional diversion for an unscheduled landing, and a delay deboarding at the final destination.

The cabin crew member called crew tracking to report their illegality and was advised to call from the hotel for a new sign-in time. Once at the hotel, she called crew tracking and was given a new sign in time. She reported being too fatigued to realise that they were not given legal rest time. She reported that they should have been given a 10-hour minimum rest break after a 14 hours and 30 minutes day (She was actually on duty for 16 hours). Instead, they were given eight hours and 27 minutes on paper, which she estimated to consist of five hours sleep. She did not realise she was still illegal until the next day during a 12-hour flight. She ended up on duty for 28 hours during a 36-hour trip. This was a night flight.

Losing control of passengers

The cabin crew member reported loss of control of passengers on board a diverted airliner sitting on the ramp. During the flight, the cabin crew encountered passenger illness (requiring medical attention), passenger misconduct (theft of airplane flashlight), weather, and food service problems (low on supplies). Crews were on duty for 17 hours and 30 minutes. This was a night flight.

Nervous after nine days flying

The cabin crew member reported flying nine days straight without a calendar day off, but was legal by six minutes. She complained of being intimidated to fly. Though legal, she cited extreme fatigue as being detrimental to her ability to perform her duties on aircraft.

These cases studies are extracts from the report “Flight Attendant Fatigue” prepared for the NASA Ames Research Center in California, USA.

Baggage handlers

Brendan Gold explains the pressures felt by baggage handlers

Baggage handlers understand their responsibilities very clearly. One shop steward at Heathrow airport summed it up when he said, “The last thing you want when you land in New York is to find your baggage has just landed in Bahrain. We know our job and we do it to the best of our ability.”

Increasingly though, competitive pressures from the airlines to turn around aircraft very quickly mean that baggage handlers, and ground crews in general, are expected to work much faster to the same high quality levels as ever. Moving hundred of kilos of bags in a very short space of time puts physical pressures on the baggage handlers. Back, neck and arm injuries are regular risks that our members face.

"When they stop counting the bags they load at the same rate as they count their profits we might get some sense into the system"

The risk of injury increases in direct proportion to the cutting of turn around times. One of the members behind our Gatwick Charter* put it in very clear terms when he said, “I’m expected to lift the weight of a small elephant on my own. I’m fit but even I can’t do that in the time they give me.”A major airport security crisis at Heathrow airport in August put the whole system under the microscope. The number of missing bags meant the system failed in spite of the best efforts of our people. Shifting large amounts of cases in a short space of time requires planning, teamwork and co-operation.

TGWU members are prepared to play their part but, to quote another Gatwick handler, “When they stop counting the bags they load at the same rate as they count their profits we might get some sense into the system. I don’t want to be blamed for a ruined holiday or a bad business trip. The ways things are though, that’s exactly the risk I run.” The TGWU is demanding minimum turnaround times and a new maximum weight of 23kg for each piece of passenger baggage, as part of a nine-point charter for safer working practices at Gatwick airport, launched in August. You can find more details of the campaign at www.tgwu.org.uk

Brendan Gold is national secretary for civil aviation for the Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU), Great Britain.

Ground workers

Discomfort and danger: testimonies

>We operate around one flight an hour, which is a rapid air schedule. We often have to pull bags off the incoming baggage belt, which can be as much as a whole flight load of bags that have to be pulled off. I am the only one who will ever call for help or shut down the belt moving to get the bags off. Many of the bags are very heavy, plus they pull against a moving belt. -Worker, airport A

>Management doesn’t explain how health and safety is protected for the workers. I asked for information, but never got any answers. I have back problems. Suitcases fall down, even with the zig zag carpet because there is no bar. I have to pick up the bags and put them back on the conveyor belt.

The chairs are not good, there’s no full back support and they’re not comfortable…On one side of the airport, the temperature is OK, but on the other side, nearer to the doors, it’s too cold. There’s a lot of noise, and it’s tiring. The boarding pass printer makes noise and there is general noise all around. The lighting is very bright everywhere.

The health and safety committee exists, but it’s not that effective dealing with health and safety issues. At the beginning of this year a worker was killed on the tarmac by a high loader going backwards. It was noisy so the workers could not hear it coming. This should have gotten more attention than it did. It didn’t change anything.
-Worker, airport C

These testimonies are taken from “Service on the ground: occupational health of airport check-in workers”, which is published by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Air traffic controllers

Joe Magee, air traffic services adviser to the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF), describes the stresses of air traffic controllers

Air traffic has doubled in the last 10 years. Many controllers are working shift patterns that were designed in the 70s and 80s with traffic at much lower levels. In the past, when delays occurred in the morning, controllers were able to recover the situation within a couple of hours. In the busiest airports today problems are persisting for most of the day and in some cases will still be around when the evening peak is starting. At the same time, air navigation providers are reducing costs, which means fewer staff and more overtime working – in many cases this work is unpaid.

In the case of engineering, staff reductions are creating new pressures for remaining staff. In many countries, engineers are now simply responding to calls to repair equipment rather than carrying out preventative maintenance. As part of the cost reductions, many employers are refusing to pay overtime and instead are giving time off in lieu, which simply adds to the pressures.

In Europe the airlines have applied huge pressure to reduce delays. In many countries staff report frequent breakdowns of equipment. Even the shortest breakdown can increase delays and lead to increased pressure on staff.

In June 2004 the UK computer system failed for just two hours, yet airlines report that the knock-on effect went on for days. Logistics have to be so finely orchestrated. On the short-haul network for example, you might have a Frankfurt flight coming in late. The plane is due to go to Edinburgh, the pilots are heading to Madrid and the crew are going to Oslo. So the knock-on affect from one delay is that all those subsequent flights get delayed. In turn staff in air traffic are put under immense pressure.